Epiphany: (Noun) A moment in which one realizes they had no clue what was really going on just seconds earlier.
In addition to the digital scrawling for my little web site here, I work at a hotel. I run the front desk at a cute little place in Orlando, Florida. I enjoy my job. It makes me feel important, grown up. The other day I was speaking with our bellman, Barry. The subject was Generation X. Barry is somewhat of a religious fanatic. To his defense I say he is truly committed to the subject. Committed being the emphasized word there. He is a good man but always reads too much into too little of things. By his reasoning we now had only three generations left on Earth: X, Y and ultimately Z.
Aside from the Armageddon references, I was amused by this conversation. But an interesting question formulated that left me somewhat agape. What generation was I? Barry is a baby boomer. As are my folks. My girlfriend, Debbie is happily a Gen-Xer. At 29, I am a few years old than she. Debbie and I are in the same generation by definition. But I never, at any time considered myself a member of Generation X.
So just what the hell am I?
Like Jan Brady, I find myself in the middle of two very flashy opponents. I am not a Baby Boomer and I am certainly not a Gen-Xer. However I distinctly possess attributes from both biological eras. I am a peace loving freedom freak. I don't smoke grass but I watched Woodstock on videotape. I even like Jimmy Hendrix. I also am a slacker. I hate to admit this but I find it easier to say, "Okay, I'll do it in a minute." And then conveniently forget about the task later when no one is looking.
But categorizing myself isn't an easy task. I have too many "middle of the roads." Boomers for instance, stand against everything. Xers stand against nothing. I usually prefer to go sit on that comfortable bench in the corner. You know, sometimes I feel like Woody Allen in the movie, Deconstructing Harry. I really want to do something important but later I just chicken out and ramble for twenty minutes to some hooker for 95 bucks an hour.
Uh.
Did I just write that?
Ugh, nevermind, just read on, will ya?
Ahem, according to governmental census information, anyone who is ages 18-30 is a Generation X laureate. Which means I'm at the crossroads. (Go figure). But by my count there were millions of people all born in my same year of 1971. I for one think if there are that many of us out there then we should rebel. We shouldn't have to live under the video gaming thumb of Generation X nor the tie dyed bonds of the Baby Boomers.
I say we make our own little shindig of a generation.
We can call it, "Generation Uh"
And unlike those other hard-line groups of people, WE will allow the old and young alike to join. No little things like AGE will get in the way.
Age doesn't matter. You're only as old as you feel. And right now, I'm feeling a 21-year-old. Heh, I'm a dirty old man. And guess what? You can be one too. Or you can be a dirty young man or a dirty woman, young or old for that matter. There are no rules. That's the best part of this new generational affair.
Yes, folks. I have had an epiphany.
It is time to drop these phony titles like X and Boomer. We will replace the Yuppie with the Yippee!
One of the reasons we have so much misunderstanding in this world is because we think that no matter how much the biology books preach about us all being human beings, we just don't accept that everyone else out there is like we are. We always complain about THEY and THEM. All the time it never even dawns on us that THEY in fact are WE. I think that if we can drop the whole generation thing and just accept that we are all the same regardless of age then we can make a huge step in that little known and highly unsuccessful concept called "cohabitation".
Think about that a moment.
No more disrespecting the elderly. No more Racism. No more Semitism. No more Sexism. No more Antagonism. And no more Jan Brady.
Hmm, it sound's like a good idea to me.
You in?
-Hy